This was our first cruise and it will not be the last , we sailed from Dover uk on the costa magica I was a bit worried after reading some reviews , let me start by saying never take notice of reviews if you have not cruised before make your own mind up .The ship was fantastic as was the cabin and food , the staff were excellent they could not do enough for you , my wife is celiac and she was catered for just as well as we were .The cabin was cleaned to a high standard every day and the ship was spotless the drinks were a little expensive but we took the j2 drinks package and made good use of it .
I cannot understand why people give this company bad reviews , as this was our first cruise we have nothing to compare it with but if other cruise companies are half as good as this one then I would be happy , yes it is an Italian company so expect to here announcements in different languages but they are far and few between they did not bother us at all , most of the staff speak good English so communication was not a problem.
I did not take any of the excursions as they are quite expensive as you would expect so I cannot comment on them but a couple we meet on board said they were quite good.